by zantocon » Sat Sep 20, 2008 9:02 am
I agree with Zorbee on this one, even though I have done the shaman/monk for a very long time. I'm leaning more towards shaman/warrior now. Since the warrior can handle two or three mobs without a lot of healing in most exp zones, and then can tank in places like crystallos. Also when I do get a group with both, I know I have a solid tank.
Advantages:
shaman/sk - Ability to solo pull with fd and snare, ae aggro spells so with adds you don't have to worry about shaman being beat on, easy aggro control, lifetap procs to help with healing, a plate tank so you can do more trophy kills.
shaman/monk - High dps. Very easy to solo pull. A low duration snare for runners (aa based). Good avoidance, so tanks rather well. Master's aura prevents enrage so you don't have to worry about your box or your pup dieing when you forget to turn off attack on enrage. Ability to memblur mez, so when all crap hits the fan they can Imitate Death, and then blur the crowd.
shaman/warrior - Decent dps. Very stout plate tank, best of the bunch. Less healing necessary on singles, and can really handle multiples well. High aggro with their bazu/sneer/incite lines. Can tank any zone (sks can too but anyone whose healed both knows a war tanks better on high end content, not impossible for an sk to tank, just not as easy, look up DI on thesteelwarrior.org) for more info.
shaman/pal - Once again a good solid plate tank. Good stackable buffs, including low level cleric lines like conviction, virtue etc. BBB all of which stack with your shamans buffs. Can root and help out with crowd control on multiples. Can stun most exp mobs (though yellows can give them problems), making damage incoming a little less. Can heal themselves to help alleviate some of the healing from the shaman. Very high dps versus undead.
shaman/ranger - High dps again. Easy to solo pull outdoors. Attack buffs, and hp buff that stacks with shaman buffs. AC/damage shield buffs. Snare. Nukes (never understimate the power of Arc of Arrows + headshot in a light blue zone)
shaman/zerker - High dps. Stuns (not sure to what level, not done a lot with zerkers). Snare. Can tank decently with very good gear, but no where near the other tanks.
shaman/beastlord - High dps. Extra puma proc. SE buff for extra mana regen on both toons. Heals to back up the shaman. Backup slows, dots, snare proc for pet. Two tanks in one.
shaman/mage - Lots of dps. Damage shields. Puma proc plus a nuker in one. Mage pets can tank almost anything if you pay attention to them. Mages also get a nifty mem blur pet for bad pulls.
Disadvantages -
shaman/sk - low dps. Can make up for it with instant nukes/dots and a pet for puma procs, but its still not up there with a monk/mage etc.
shaman/warrior - No single pull capabilities.
shaman/paladin - low dps(except vs undead). No single pull capabilities (once above the lull cap).
shaman/monk - cannot tank in the higher end zones without exceptional gear or several healers
shaman/beastlord - many of the spells that beastlords have shamans already have. no single pull ability
shaman/ranger - can only single pull outdoors. Needs high end gear to tank in bigger zones (crystallos etc)
shaman/zerker - not able to tank in harder content (ship, zeka, crystallos though i've seen a couple who can with a healer on their toes.) no single pull capabilities
shaman/mage - very difficult to single pull (using mem blur pet it's possible).
There are many other combos, a shaman can duo with any class and do pretty well. The only ones that are a little more difficult are wizards and such, as they break our root if we are dotting. I find when I duo with my wifes wizard, I tend to dot 4 or 5 dots, and then let her break root and pretend I'm a necro.